Friday Fragments: The Weekly Catch-Up

Thank you once again, Mrs. 4444, for giving me the opportunity to do a fragmentary post catching up on the things that have gone on this week.  If you're a blogger and don't "frag", definitely consider it.  Visit Half-Past Kissin' Time to link up.

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I got to see both of my nephews on Sunday, which is a rarity.

My brother lives about an hour away, but he just recently moved into a new house and has been busy with that, plus he and his girlfriend work all week, so weekends are pretty much their only time together.  They brought Pete down for a day at the beach, though, and it was as always great to see them.

My sister and brother-in-law spent some time at their cabin in Maine last week, and they stopped in on their way back to Maryland.  It was wonderful to see them all, especially my nephew Eddie.  They only stopped in for a minute because they had to get the rental car back, but Eddie and Belle had a great time playing together.

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I was so proud of my girls this week!

Belle has been desperately wanting to have a lemonade stand, and we've been putting her off.  After attending day camp at the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) last week (she wants to be either a vet, a scientist, or a lion tamer when she grows up), though, Belle decided that she wanted to donate the proceeds of a lemonade stand to the SPCA.  

It was hard to say no to that ...

And I was very proud of Addie, who joined right in to help her sister out.

It's comforting to know that your kids really do get the moral lessons you try to teach them ...

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Since my ex-husband fell into the toilet of alcoholism and irresponsibility, this week has been a tough one, considering that August 4 was the day we got married.  I still try to focus on the positives, but sometimes it's really difficult.

This is especially true when he gets it into his head to call and make me feel badly about how little he gets to see Belle (as though this is my fault), and I want to scream at him, "You're trying to make this about YOU, you SOB, and it's not about you at all ... it's about Belle and what's best for her.  Well, at least it should be!"

I was as polite as I could possibly be, and I asked that future correspondence of this nature be done through e-mail.

That stupid high road is a tough climb sometimes ...

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Addie started marching band rehearsals this week.  When she left, there was a severe thunderstorm warning, and she had to drive through one heck of a storm.  

Although Addie doesn't mind thunderstorms (in fact, she actually enjoys them, something she certainly didn't get from me), she is still a very cautious driver.  

I was really impressed that she drove slowly and calmly.  I would have pulled into a gas station, hid in the bathroom, and cried until it was over.  

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Belle learned to swim!

You might think that, growing up on the ocean, my kids would be strong swimmers ... but they're not.  

They have water awareness and know how to go underwater and to respect the tides and such, but actual swimming isn't something that inherently comes with ocean water.

Anyway, Belle was invited to a birthday party at a local outdoor pool.  As soon as she saw the water slides (and the lines of kids going down them), she asked me to teach her to swim (the water slides empty into 12-foot-deep water, and you have to swim a fair amount to get to the ladder or even the side of the pool)

She asked me to teach her how to swim and, after about half an hour, I felt she was a good enough swimmer to try the water slides.  She was a superstar!

Belle's the one flying off the blue slide here.

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Summer school ended yesterday.  While I always enjoy teaching summer school, it is exhausting beyond words.  

I have three days to enjoy the summer, then I have a conference all next week, a two-day conference the week after that, and Addie and I are going up to UVM to visit the campus as soon as I get back from that one.  

What summer ;-)?

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The summer of the dentist continues ...

Both girls went to the dentist this week, Addie to get an old filling replaced and Belle to get a cavity filled.  

Addie hates the dentist (well, not the dentist personally, just the idea of dentists in general), but Belle as always viewed it as an adventure ... and a chance to show off her truly unique personality ;-)

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I've done a lot of reflecting this week, particularly about focusing on the positives.  When you have blessings like this, how can you not?

A Snow Saga

Last week was the snowiest I can remember in 34 years on this earth. While I'm sure it's a bit of selective memory on my part, I can state unequivocally that New Hampshire is currently covered with quite a bit of the white stuff.

Because Addie just got her license this past fall, I'm extremely overprotective about when and where and how (and who) she drives. Yeah, I'm the annoying mother that requires her to text me both before she leaves to go anywhere and as soon as she arrives at her destination. If she doesn't do those things, she loses her car. Period.

I also reserve the right to deem the roads unsafe for her to drive. Because of the snow, she wasn't allowed to drive herself to school at all last week. Today, because the roads were clear, Addie was back on the road.

Because she had mid-terms today, she got out of school at 12:15. Just before one, I got a text telling me that she arrived home. I was relieved and went about my business of proctoring my mid-terms (which my school had today, too).

And then my phone started ringing. Well, actually, it started vibrating because it was on silent. I saw it was Addie and pressed the "ignore" button, figuring that she'd already told me that she'd gotten home safely so it was probably one of those "I'm out of shampoo, can you pick some up for me?" kind of things. I assumed I'd get a voicemail notification, but instead the phone started vibrating again. The third time she called back, I finally answered it.

Addie was absolutely hysterical. Her car was stuck at the bottom of the driveway and she'd tried to move it and it was now stuck in a snowbank and she needed me to help her and so on. I tried to get her calmed down and told her I'd get her car taken care of when I got home and not to worry.

Belle's after-school care is located on the same street as my house, so I got a look at the car on my way by--I cringed when I looked in the driveway. It was bad. Bad enough, in fact, that I wasn't sure I'd be able to squeeze my car in far enough to move Addie's car. It was clearly not going to be a cool experience.

I called Addie as I was grabbing Belle and told her to start the car so I wouldn't freeze while I was trying to move it (temperatures were in the negative numbers today). I also asked her to come grab Belle from my car (our driveway is fairly long and extremely steep), which she readily agreed to do.

When I got home, I did my best to maneuver my car as far into the driveway as possible ... put the hazard lights on just in case, though. Addie was as good as her word and met Belle and I at the bottom of the driveway, grabbing Belle's paraphernalia and starting up the driveway as I went to get into her car.

Which was locked.

Yup, while starting the car so it could warm up, Addie had accidentally locked her keys in the car.

So she starts crying all over again while I go looking in the yellow pages for the police department. Turns out, by the way, that my town's police department does not accommodate people who lock their keys in their car, but the dispatcher kindly directed me to CarOpeners who, for $60, will come Slim Jim a locked car.

I didn't really have a choice in the matter.

So Mr. CarOpener comes after about twenty minutes, and he was great. His flashlight died in the midst of the great car break-in venture, so I got my flashlight from the house, which he was very appreciative of. He gets the door opened, and I get in the car and try to move it.

Nothing.

So the Slim Jim guy offered to try to extricate the car from its snowy prison, which was super nice of him. It took him a few minutes, but he eventually got the car up to the garage, which I don't know that I would have been able to do.

I did learn a couple of things from this, though.

The first is that I found out that Addie had gotten into the driveway just fine on her own. She was trying to help by backing her car into the garage so it would be out of the way and she got it stuck in the process. We did have a long conversation after my hands defrosted about how, if you are uncomfortable in a driving situation, to stop what you're doing and call someone who can help you. Oh, and that she just needs to get into the driveway--I'll put her car into the garage for her after I get home from work.

The second thing was how kind Mr. Slim Jim was. I mean, obviously I paid him sixty bucks to get the car unlocked, a process that took about two minutes. He had absolutely no obligation, however, to help me get the car out of the snowbank, never mind move it up to the garage.

There is so much simple human decency in the world, and I am always so grateful when I encounter someone that reminds me of this.